The absolute worldwide and eternal king of time-lapse gardening videos has struck again. You keep me coming back. Fascinating and educational, for both seasoned and new gardeners alike. Thanks once again, Charles!
Oh this is fascinating. I know it’s vulgar to talk money but I would rather get a lower but still worthwhile yield from a free growing medium than a higher yield from expensive potting compost. I’ve grown a pot of potatoes in sieved leafmould ( with a handful each of chicken manure pellets and blood fish and bone) and they did well. Next time I’m planning on adding some home made compost to the leafmould and save on the fertilizers. I’m cheap.
Me, too. I value decent sized potatoes as they're easier for me to deal with in the kitchen, if they have any green and need peeling or what-not, but otherwise I'm totally there. Basically it usually just good exercise of ones brain and maturity to have those thoughts and values, making exceptions at least knowledgeably and purposefully ( like, I know it's a splurge but I'm going to buy this, or spend more for that). Not to be stingy or greedy, but to care well for your own needs and savings avoids unnecessarily being a burden on others, and the more you have extra, the more good u can do with it. In farming, the benefits are also seen in cow health, when farmers went to rotational grazing and less grain, resulting in lower yields of milk BUT also lower costs, over-head and greater cow health & longevity, and happiness, less stress, of the worker/family. Off topic but u made me think of it :).
It’s wise at least you know what goes in your home fertiliser. They probably add some sort of hormones I’d have rather less than full of harmful hormones
I love videos where they show the actual results of trials. This gives me ideas of what to mix and match so I can have the biggest harvest of potatoes. Excellent!
Excellent, we did similar trials with similar results !! Watering seemed to play a big role as well. That being said, all in, our own compost was the winner, slightly smaller yeild but cost nothing and we knew what was in it!! Thanks again!!
I began using my cannabis grow room and tent to grow vegetables and herbs as well; peppers, garlic, strawberries, dill, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and catnip currently. When I saw you using old bags to grow potatoes and test the different mediums, I felt somewhat dimwitted for not thinking of doing the same. Meaning, I could easily fit a sack or two and grow potatoes indoors over winter (Z5b southern VT). Thank you!
The first year I experimented with potatoes, I grew them in dry leaves and leaf compost, yeilded about 5 lbs. From only about 5 potato pieces. I was fascinated. The second year I grew them in about 3 inches of compost then topped off with dried leaves, I planted about 10 potato pieces, yeilded about 10 lbs of potatoes. I am still fascinated. I've been growing things for a long time but honestly potato plants are quite fascinating, and so easy. I don't many potatoes but I sure do love to grow them. In planters, in the ground, in new beds and old, it's so rewarding. :)
That sounds amazing, and it's so rewarding as you say. I'm hoping to encourage a lot of children to grow potatoes this spring, because I think they will find it fascinating.
Hello Charles! Your videos always contain a lot of useful information. Thank you for sharing your experience. Health and all the best to you! Peace for everyone! Ukraine👍🌻💙💛🙏
Excellent and exciting grow trial series you are conducting with composts, potting mix, and real soil---great idea to grow leeks in the same substrate as the potatoes, too! Love the cliff-hanger!
Apparently if the compost is too nutrient dense at the start, you immediately get a high number of tubers. If the medium is unable to maintain this high level of nutrients, these tubers never develop. And so to get bigger potatoes, sow in an average compost and then feed later in the year as the tubers are swelling
You didn't show us the harvest from the horse manure. Last year I planted in pots and just used grass cuttings. I got quite a few potatoes. I didn't want the expense of buying compost to grow them - my dalek compost was still in process. I've got about seven big bags of compost from the dalek this year, and it looks to be good quality.
Ive got tons (and I mean tons) of horse manure as two local stables pile it up on my land and I turn it over with my digger every couple of weeks so it becomes beautiful well rotted compost - i don’t believe it has any weed killer in it - I was thinking of using it to grow my potatoes in pots this year with nothing else added - any thoughts?
Thank you so much for taking the time to create and share this video. It's so useful to see your comparison of different growing medium types and the logical winner perhaps makes me feel my own compost purchase has been justified. There is nothing like knowing where your food comes from. That it is chemical free, fresh and flavoursome. And that it's there the following January when you harvested in the previous July! I wouldn't have achieved what I have in my growing without your inspiration; thank you, Charles.
I did potatoes last year in old feed bags, they are just that single use that I dislike so I rolled them down put in compost (mine) and potatoes. Actually got a nice yield.
Thank you for this experiment and for sharing it with us, Charles. We made some raised beds last Summer and I was going to fill them with horse manure from our village stables (I thought it was natural, free, nutritious and closing the gap locally). I am so happy I did some research before filling them up. I was worried about the antibiotics they probably had given to the horses and them making their way into our bodies. It's refreshing (and worrying at the same time) to see the results of the others and the horse manure 🤢 How terrible if someone does all the work of growing their own to improve their health, and this happens... 🙏 Keep up the videos, Charles. Thank you.
Yes, and those persistent herbicides are something I hadn't known about- My parents diary farm, mostly conventionally ( vrs. all Organic or regenerative per se) yet don't usually spray anything on hayfields, so, it wasn't even on my "radar".
Happy new year to you and yours , ive been following you for quite a while even though i am in the caribbean your advice has never been wrong thanks for your never ending good work. May God bless you always.
Interesting experiment, and because it's in bag's makes it more room for other veggies on the raise beds . As for compost I been making some but not in large quantities so definitely going to amend it . Thank you for the information. God bless Charles. 🙏🏻
I wouldn't have expected that the wood chips would grow potatoes in those amounts. That's a pleasant surprise. Earth, I think I will just keep in the garden. I think I will add coir to increase drainage, living in a temperate rainforest zone. Interesting to see mushroom manure producing such good quality potatoes.
I sure love the design of your logo and all your books and I hope you never change it! Don’t let some crazy design guy like my husband make you think you need to “update” the look! ❤
The best yields I have had were 3-5 year old manure. The next was just over 1 year old mulch which was put in a raised bed about 1ft deep. That bed is my best bed even now full of perennial veg, leeks etc. I think it will be another season before it needs topping up.
Hello Charles, great video thankyou. I've been growing potatoes in 15 gal grow bags for several years with really great result. I use my own aged compost and I grow mustard in the bags, late fall thru til spring. Wire worms aren't too fond of mustard, and the cover crop idea seems to help. I grow 4 varieties and most years I get really big potatoes. I quit useing barnyard manure 3 yrs ago and I add a little bit of composted aged chicken manure. Blessings.
I planted in bags last year. Totally underestimated the leaves acting as an umbrella and massively under watered. The potatoes in the ground did much better but I don’t like disturbing the soil when harvesting. Think I may try just two potatoes or even one in a sack and see the difference. I don’t expect any more match yours, except maybe the manure one 🙈
Just remember/be aware, that when disturbing the soil when harvesting potatoes, that the more advanced your no-till garden is, the more you'll be able to simply pull them out and easily reach in to gather any u suspect r still there, without completely destroyed a giant hole, like can be "normal" otherwise. Then too, with the undisturbed paths between the rows of hills, the relatively small, disturbed area has a lot of UN-disturbed borders to send in re-populations, healing, growth, quickly. When watching a fairly recent webinar series on some soil life basics, with Elaine Ingram, on TH-cam, I learned that.
I did a similar system with Charlottes and Maris peer but I turned the sacks inside out to as the black heats up the soil.I put an inch of gravel in the bottom and mulched the top with straw.
Did you abandon the horse manure bag? I know it certainly appeared to be tainted by pyralid but it would have been interesting (to me at least) To see it included in the next part with the leeks as pyralid doesn't seem to affect them very much. Regardless it was a fascinating experiment. Thank you.
Thanks, and yes, I was so disgusted. There were zero potatoes and I have actually found onions were less strong in pyralid affected compost, however, yes, I could've continued!
We had some potatoes sprout in some rotting camellia flowers?? I put a box around them and added compost and keep adding as it grows. Also added seaweed tea
Thanks for this Charles. I’m currently experimenting with this myself after getting tired of potatoes (and garlic) bring up the clay with weed seeds below my beds. This will likely be a better long term alternative.
My potato compost scraps went on a hugel mound I am building up and I had to laugh at the 10 lbs/ 5 ish kilos I got from them. Nice treat I have to say.
Great video as always Charles, thank you. I recently cleared a new veg bed in my garden, and am preparing it for the year ahead. To improve the soil I mixed in a few bags of rotted horse manure from B&Q, which has done pretty well for me in the past. However, now I'm worried that I've brought in some horrible chemicals with it. It's currently under cardboard and will sit for a few months until I start planting in spring - do you think that's enough for the micro-organisms to break it down? I'd be grateful for more information on it. If you're looking for ideas for the channel, perhaps you could interview someone about it, to advise on how long the effects can persist, and ways to avoid it? Many thanks!
Well, I have already made two videos on it since suffering poisoning in 2014. I've had a lot of contact with Dow-Corteva chemical company who make it and who were not helpful at all. Their advice is to rotavate the soil to bring it into contact with microorganisms, but they obviously do not realise that rotavated soil kills microorganisms! I have since discovered that best degradation is through sunlight so surface application is best. Yours might be okay and you could put a little in module cells or small pots and sow broad beans on the windowsill, to find out within four weeks if growth is healthy. Beans are very susceptible.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Fantastic, thank you Charles. I'll look up those two videos. It's a new bed from which I had to remove a lot of Montbretia, woody shrubs and carpeting perennials, so I had to disturb the topsoil to get all that out. While it was already disturbed I dug in the manure, and laid cardboard over the top. It'll be about three months before I'll plant anything there, so hopefully that will give it a chance for the microorganisms to reestablish and break down any chemical residues that may be in it. In future years I'll not dig it again, and will mulch with my own home-made compost. If using manure again in the future I'll make sure to look out for certified-organic manure. It'll be more expensive, but at least I'll know that I'll not be exposing my family to any horrible chemicals.
Interesting question, I was wondering the same. I saw a video by Liz Zorab, where she grew the same vaiety of potatoes - no-dig method, just covered with different mulches and while taste testing, the differences were noticable. The leafmould gave the best tasting potatoes, if I remember correctly.
Tnx for yet another very instructive video, Charles! You got me thinking: maybe the reason birds keep digging up my plants in the raised beds is that the compost I add every year isn't ready yet!? Still too many worms in it....
Another great and intriguing video Sir Charles Dowding. For an urban garden grower this seems to not be cost effective crop for the amount good compost and space required. A bag of 2.5kg you can get pretty good price but obviously it would not taste as good fresh ones. The cost of compost is expensive these days. Conclusion, worth growing in the ground if you have space but in pots it’s not economical for urban gardener
Thank you Sir, for the experiment. It took a lot of time and dedication and you made it look easier in only 18 minutes. Indeed you harvest them too early. Those potatoes will be much much more heavier in a week or two. Really really fascinating
You are most welcome and also correct on that, but we have to fit in with the videographer! Also, for the second part of transplanting leeks, the sooner they go in the better.
Very good trial showing, with aspects of each. I'm thinking that the issue in the horse manue compost isn't limited to horse. Used a bag of primarily cow manure for seed starting at the first of last year. So many seeds either didn't spout or performed poorly. I'm abstaining from bagged compost this coming year (thankful for the spouse's chicken collection!). Consider that this information comes from South Central area of the US. As always, thank you so much for your time.
Hi Charles, just preparing a few bags for my spring onions, 25 Liter bags. Did you put any drainage materials in the bottom of the sacks and did you make any drainage holes at all??? Many thanks in advance
I didn't put anything except compost in the sacks, and all of those sacks had some holes, plus, I cut more slits before filling them. You are right to ask the question because drainage is vital.
Fantastically well structured video and even a fancy stick the hand in the compost sack transition haha! Could it be that the horse manure was still breaking down? Like you said it was still warm? Also if you would normally expect potatoes to grow well in %100 horse manure like that, then that should be an indication of just how much chook poo you could add to the wood chip bags (lots!). Red Gardens TH-cam channel just posted a very similar trial with 180 sacks you may be interested in watching. From memory, chook poo added as fertiliser didn't perform well for them. Did you give up on the weed killer bag? Would have been interesting to repeat it for a few years to see if it broke down. Thanks for the great video!
I remember coming across an article in the U.S. about race horses getting crippling effects from they guessed, the grass. If there was a follow up article I missed it.
I love this!! I think I am going to forgoe the Ratte that I grew last year for Charlotte. I was disappointed with my potato harvest, I did water daily through the hot weather, from what I've seen I dont think it was just me that had poor results. I had high hopes for Kondor and the Sarpo Blue Danube, unfortunately didn't materialise! I will try again from saved seed. I thought I saw 8 sacks to begin with and only 7 buckets at the end? Thank you as always 🙂
Interesting what you say about manure. We had some delivered to the allotment, well rotted, but my rhubarb went yellow, wilted and seemed to rot at the base. I wonder now if this is chemicals. Slightly worrying as I have spread it all over my empty beds to improve my clay soil this winter.😮
Ah bother, I'm afraid that may be the case, and you could verify it, at least you would know. Take some of the manure and put it in two or three pots, then sow broad beans and keep them on the windowsill, you will know within four weeks, whether plants are healthy or deformed. Classic sign is new leaves curling inwards. If that happens, you can still grow sweetcorn and brassicas, but not beans or potatoes or tomatoes. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope it's not the case.
Amazing video. Very interesting. I just got your year calendar and I'm looking forward to the new book for children. I'm getting it for my 4 year old. As you were about to plant leeks... I lost all of mine to allium leaf miner. Also, tons of other plants from the allium family were affected, even under micromesh. My garlic this year was pitiful. Never had my garlic infested until last year. Do you have advice? Thank you 😊
Thanks Susan. I had damage this year for the second time only, on leeks and it needs to not get any worse! I'm afraid I don't have advice at the moment. It sounds bad for you!
Cool experiment Charles. I don't hear you talk much about ph levels in the soil when growing potatoes. Most information I read from other sources suggests adding acidic amendments like sulfur to your soil before planting because potatoes allegedly enjoy lower ph levels. Have you found this to be the case in your experience?
Haha no! I see so much unnecessary overcomplication, and here the soil is actually a little alkaline, so in theory I could do that, but I never found a need for it. Because potatoes since 1982 have always been good.
Potatoes is a steady crop and we are grateful for that. What more is to say is that with potatoes it is like most of the other crops, they like the best weather for its species. They do not like it to hot, we get more tasty bulbs up here in the north of Sweden compared to the south. In my opinion they give the best harvest with a solid temperature somewhere in the middle of the scale and not to much rain. We plant them traditionally in a field with sandy soil, plowed by the village farmer, fertilized with cow manure. Usually, with the combination of a sunny but not to hot summer and a regularly amount of rain we get a very good harvest. In garden i use to have 3-4 pallet bins for potatoes, growing them "vertically"- I put the seedlings on the ground and put soil on them, then keep putting more soil on the growth and end up with 2-3 pallets on each others in the end. I have found it an easy (and cheap) way to get a lot of bulbs on a small area and a perfect way to expand the amount of a new variety. I have the same soil everywhere in my garden; cow manure at the bottom of my beds and a mix of soil from the fields, recycled soil from the seedling pots, sand and a lot of leafs. Blending the recycled soil, sand and leafs in a bag in autumn and spread it out on the beds, working fine. In spring I fertilize with a little manure from the chickens on the surface of the beds and later on I water with a "soup" made of nettles, comfrey and dry and hard pieces from the cow manure, once a month.
Great video and I was very surprised with the wood chips yield but I'm guessing if it's actually become compost then of course it has the nutrients and microbial life as do the others. Pity about the horse poo - I'm fortunate to have a daughter with three horses - have to be quick though as the dung beetles do an amazingly quick job of carting it away! Oddly, the best yield I've had in almost 50 years, was in clay too hard to dig - I just laid the spuds on the ground and did a horse manure, hay and straw lasagne on top. But the staggering thing was how this changed the soil - top inch or so was dark, friable and with soil life. Haven't dug the soil since, and since finding you quite some time ago, only use compost (my own or mushroom). It's extremely hot here in the Riverina NSW so I do add sugar cane mulch. Absolutely love your informative videos and you keep inspiring me to try things - even though my vegie patch is small it takes up my entire back yard - love, love gardening and seeing things grow. 👩🌾
This is so nice to see Liz! How well you have done, following your instincts. I hope that your daughter can trace any hay given to the horses to be sure that it has none of that pyralid weedkiller in.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thankyou so much for taking the time to reply - she only feeds lucerne, so I'm pretty confident. I did however get a contaminated bag of general compost 2 years ago when I couldnt get mushroom - wrecked 5 of my cherry tomatoes! I wouldn't have known about this had it not been for you, and the same goes for why my hard clay soil changed - fungi and microbes are truly amazing. Learning about soil life and compost through your videos answered so many questions, and it all makes such sense - I now try to replicate what I see Nature do when out on my bushwalks. Many thx again.
Yes. This matters. Thanks Charles. I've made an error or gamble planting potatoes in January. I put the contents of planting pots over them. Grow something, everyone. Horses aren't chemists....
That was really interesting. Imagine the yield if you mixed it all together, EXCEPT the weed killer of course 😁 I actually buy my mushroom compost a year before I use it just in case there are aminopyralids in there. I slowly mix it with many of the mediums mentioned in the video so that things have a season or two to merry and then I amend with it. I have seen whole properties so affected by aminopyralids that I don't trust anything that I bring in. I am just using the last of my garden potatoes now. I will be growing more in the spring. I do wish suppliers would have some short season seed potatoes for mid season planting though so we can harvest in the fall. I manage to do it with some potato varieties so at least I get some. I mean, I get it, since we are a shorter season but I can still get a round of lovely little fresh potatoes in October where I am. Of course, I am a brave(or crazy) gardener, haha!
Do you mean, available to buy in the stores, mid-season ? Or shorter season varieties to buy and plant in spring, to harvest sooner ? Because for the latter, the fairly common " Yokon Gold" has a short-season to maturity. I know there are others. U may want to peruse more catalogs, for this info. Esp. the catalogs geared towards market growers such as 'Johnny's' , will have more various-season length varieties of things &/or more information about stuff like that on what they sell. As for getting seed potatoes in the off-season, just buying organic potatoes will usually do it.
@@ajb.822 It was more getting seed potatoes beyond the one time they offer them at the garden centers. Great tip about the organic ones though. Thanks!
Hi Charles i have a question; can a cured manure (10-12 months) contaminate well water? i ask because i have my market garden 25mts away from a municipal well that provides 70% of the water to the town and the health service of the city hall are going to come to take a test of my compost to see if it is positive on coli or other bacteria because they fear it can contaminate the well.. thanks
I would be amazed, if your old manure, which is essentially is compost, could cause contamination to the well. Especially from being spread on the surface, because then it is fully aerobic and healthy without harmful bacteria.
Is "Potting Compost" in the U.K. the same as what is sold in the U.S. as "Potting Mix"? U.S. "Potting Mix" is primarily used for container gardening. It is very lightweight, is mostly peat moss and usually also contains perlite. Unless it has added fertilizer, which most do, it is not usually very nutrient dense.
You are absolutely right, it is the same as your potting mix. The one I use is organic and has no added fertiliser, and usually has a good amount of nutrients.
Charles, I'm growing spuds for others and I don't even eat them! How do I know when first earlies are ready without disturbing them to check? Also, where do you stand on flowers? I nipped the buds out a couple of weeks ago now.
I leave the flowers, see very small advantage in removing them, and ready is a value word so it depends what you want. If you harvest earlier, the potatoes are smaller and sweeter. Harvest before the leaves are going yellow.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I'm thinking a max of around 2" across sounds sensible for an early. I was wondering if the flower was an indication that they were ready or at a certain size, but maybe not. Will experiment. I'll leave then on next time, at least then the bees can use them, i'm guessing they're so small not a lot of energy is lost to them. Thanks for taking the time!
Hard to say, it's from whether the animal ate any hay where the grass had been sprayed with this horrible, persistent weed killer, with active ingredient known as pyralid. You will be okay if you know how the hay was grown.
Good Afternoon Charles, I wonder if I might be cheeky and ask what you use or recommend for slug control. I follow your no dig process and have good results, however this year I have lost quite a lot of main crop potatoes to slug damage. Is there a variety that you can recommend that is more resistant?
None Peter. It's fine to ask, and I find that with No Dig, there must be good populations of slug and slug egg predators, such as beetles and toads. Plus with potatoes, I never grow maincrop because I want the harvest before end of July, so I can put in second plantings. That means less slug damage because we remove potatoes as soon as they are finished growing or even before, and that's before slugs as well mostly! I hate pellets and do not use them, even the so-called organic ones.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. It does make complete sense to stick with early. The ammount of main crop I've had to waste is quite high. Thanks again for the help.
Thanks Charles for this video. I've been growing potatoes a lot of times and it's very informative for me cause i want them bigger and i'm gonna try those out. It would be awesome if you made a video mixing all of these composts,soil and share the results with us. By the way,are the chicken manure you used composted or you let it sit for a while? I've learned that there's pathogens present in manure and it should be composted. Let me know what's your thoughts on this.
Glad to help! Let's see what I have time to do. Regarding so-called pathogens in manure, there is some misunderstanding because while they might be pathogenic if you eat the manure, they are not a concern when growing plants. I think it's the sellers of synthetic fertiliser, who propagate these rumours to worry us!
an interesting trial would be comparing a no dig bed with compost to a no dig bed with same compost but with balanced npk fertilizer added, say half strength, maybe another full strength
Cheers Barry, only I could not bring myself to do this because of how synthetic fertiliser damages, the soil's microorganisms. See this study by a farming centre in the UK, "Inorganic fertiliser application reduces both the species richness and diversity of bacteria in the immediate vicinity of wheat roots. We’ve shown the amount of growth promoting bacteria living around the roots was 91% for unfertilized plants whereas for fertilized plants only 19% were found to show beneficial traits." www.rothamsted.ac.uk/article/kicking-habit-fertilisers#:~:text=Inorganic%20fertiliser%20application%20reduces%20both,found%20to%20show%20beneficial%20traits.
I notice now that you used the green waste compost only after keeping it for a year. I've just had a tipper-load of fresh green waste compost (black, dusty, fluffy and hot) and wanted to use it to make new no-dig beds (a layer on quite clean, previously cultivated soil) and also to use it on its own in buckets to grow potatoes, like in your experiment. I'm wondering, now, if you would advise against using green waste compost immediately after delivery as it needs a year to develop some 'live' microbes, extract the nutrients a bit from the sterilised material? I tried germinating broccoli seeds in some, as in growing cress in a small dish, and the seedlings looked very spindly and weak and the germination rate was only about 50%. Your potato results (and the following leeks) were good in green waste, but perhaps only because you allowed it another year to compost naturally. What would you advise?
Excellent observations, Chris, and you have provided the answer! Best leave it a year if it's delivered in the state you describe, which was the case for mine one year before that. Ideally you need to get water into it which is not easy because of how it sheds moisture. Definitely, I would not make a new bed with it this year, but you could use it as a thin dressing, where it will get wet and charge with microbes.
Interesting. I'm doing my own experiment this year with homemade, multi purpose and horse manure. Thankfully the manure is from a field free of weed killer. All in 8 gallon containers.
Great experiment Charles. I'll be growing sweet potatoes in bags this year so I'm thinking mushroom compost maybe now. Speaking of potatoes, my seed potatoes I had stored in the garage in a box have begun sprouting already. I put them in our sun room where temps are in the upper 60's to around 70 F and they get plenty of sun. I won't be planting them until at least April. Can I chit them that long? I don't know what else to do with them.
On the topic of sweet potatoes, Jim Kovaleski has found they do best in very poor soil, fertility-wise. For production of tubers, in his experience so far. ( find his videos on Pete Kanaris's channel " Green Dreams FL).
@@ajb.822 I believe mushroom compost is not very fertile since they already had mushrooms grown in them so maybe that is why they did best in Charles's experiment. Thanks for the info.
One advantage of growing in sacks or buckets is that you can move the plants around according to the season and the weather, to keep them out of the frost and to provide as much sunlight as the time of year allows.
Yes and no. Is a lot of extra watering compared to growing in the ground, and needs more space than you imagine, because of how the leaves spread out from the sacks
Interesting comparisons Charles thanks for taking the time throughout the year to produce that video. Interestingly I have just combined some 6 month old horse manure with my ordinary compost in layers to let it rot down for next year. However there were lots of worms in the ordinary compost and none in the partly rotted horse manure, I am wondering if this is an indication of the same problem you had with your horse manure. I hope not because it is my main source for compost production.
Glad it was helpful Graham and worms do not populate the compost any differently in my experience, whether there is poison or not. I find it amazing also that horses eat the hay and apparently do not get ill. I suspect there must be long-term damage, but hope not! You can always take some horse manure and sow broad beans in it, you will know within 3 to 4 weeks. If they are healthy and normal, all is good.
Nice one Charles, but having just watched 'simplify gardening' our welsh friend says chicken pellets are for top growth and blood and bone is for tubers. What say you sir?
That's the old-fashioned way of explaining nitrogen and phosphorus, isolating compounds and assigning them to different aspects of growth and I don't find it works like that, because in this case you need potato leaves in order for there to be potatoes. That wood compost is short of nitrogen because of the high amount of carbon. Those pellets helped grow potatoes. In my garden beds, I never use them.
Great trial Sir Charles and happy New Year! Would it make a positive difference to turn the bags inside out to have the black side warm up faster or would it get worse? (Of course leaving the bought Moorland gold sack as is😉). I tried to grow potatoes this year in admittedly very poor bought soil for a bargain, which was of course contra productive and not a bargain at all... hardly any yield from 6 big buckets. Will do another fill this year and try again.
That's a very good idea! Wish I had thought of it… Just one would need to be careful, if strong sun was on the edge of the sack, to water more. Good luck this year!
Really interesting results Charles, and very frustrating about the weed killer in the horse manure. We recently had some of our allotment holders suffer similar results from a delivery of horse manure. I can’t say just how annoying it is. On the plus side we have had much better results from our composted cow manure, so much so I’ve taken a delivery of another 5 tonnes just the other day.
It could be interesting to carry out the following test. Take several bags with the same medium ( probably your own compost). In a few bags plant one potato, in a few more plant two, and in a few more plant three potatoes. Also would pH be relevant. It's always been said that potatoes don't grow well in ground that was limed, in the previous year.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig for sure. I had always heard that mushroom growers / mushroom compost manufacturers added lime to the substrate. I've googled it & one site stated that the 'lime' that they used may have been a pH buffer, rather than pH 'raiser'. The composted wood chip is interesting!
I have put manure on my allotment in the past and I don't think i'll be doing that any more. As well as the weed killer a lot of people say that the manure can come with a lot of weeds in it as well. The thing I wonder about is whether growing potatoes in this way is very economical, it's hard to imagine that it would be.
Yes, this one does have some, and it's recycled from reservoirs in Yorkshire where they sieve the peat out of water, it's not been dug out of the ground.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I think my potatoes in pots grow better with a bit of peat mixed with my own compost ,, always seem to get more potatoes with that mix
This is spooky, did you coordinate with RED Gardens channel? He did almost the exact same trial, finished just recently as well. Very curious to see how the results stack up.
Ahhh, potatoes. I wish I could grow them here, they are so expensive in the supermarket. I make do with cassava and sweet potatoes but they're not the same :)
Our late potatoes got destroyed by wireworm, I seen you mention on instagram the other day about your rye recovering from wireworm. Do you have any recommendations on dealing with them? I read that they dont like mustard so I sowed some where the potatoes will be going this year . Not getting my hopes up though 😂
In the past, I have grown successful vegetables from horse manure of that age and consistency. And the growth showed weed killer damage with those twisted leaves.
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The absolute worldwide and eternal king of time-lapse gardening videos has struck again. You keep me coming back. Fascinating and educational, for both seasoned and new gardeners alike. Thanks once again, Charles!
So nice Ted thanks
Oh this is fascinating. I know it’s vulgar to talk money but I would rather get a lower but still worthwhile yield from a free growing medium than a higher yield from expensive potting compost. I’ve grown a pot of potatoes in sieved leafmould ( with a handful each of chicken manure pellets and blood fish and bone) and they did well. Next time I’m planning on adding some home made compost to the leafmould and save on the fertilizers. I’m cheap.
Fantastic Gail
Me, too. I value decent sized potatoes as they're easier for me to deal with in the kitchen, if they have any green and need peeling or what-not, but otherwise I'm totally there. Basically it usually just good exercise of ones brain and maturity to have those thoughts and values, making exceptions at least knowledgeably and purposefully ( like, I know it's a splurge but I'm going to buy this, or spend more for that). Not to be stingy or greedy, but to care well for your own needs and savings avoids unnecessarily being a burden on others, and the more you have extra, the more good u can do with it. In farming, the benefits are also seen in cow health, when farmers went to rotational grazing and less grain, resulting in lower yields of milk BUT also lower costs, over-head and greater cow health & longevity, and happiness, less stress, of the worker/family. Off topic but u made me think of it :).
It’s wise at least you know what goes in your home fertiliser. They probably add some sort of hormones I’d have rather less than full of harmful hormones
I love videos where they show the actual results of trials. This gives me ideas of what to mix and match so I can have the biggest harvest of potatoes. Excellent!
Excellent, we did similar trials with similar results !! Watering seemed to play a big role as well.
That being said, all in, our own compost was the winner, slightly smaller yeild but cost nothing and we knew what was in it!!
Thanks again!!
Thanks for sharing Clive 😀
As an apartment dweller, I don’t have room for a garden, but this video gives me hope for my container potatoes on my porch.
Go you, that can work, allow room for the foliage!
I began using my cannabis grow room and tent to grow vegetables and herbs as well; peppers, garlic, strawberries, dill, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and catnip currently. When I saw you using old bags to grow potatoes and test the different mediums, I felt somewhat dimwitted for not thinking of doing the same. Meaning, I could easily fit a sack or two and grow potatoes indoors over winter (Z5b southern VT).
Thank you!
Nice to hear that! Best of luck with it
You can grow tomatoes in the same way.
The first year I experimented with potatoes, I grew them in dry leaves and leaf compost, yeilded about 5 lbs. From only about 5 potato pieces. I was fascinated. The second year I grew them in about 3 inches of compost then topped off with dried leaves, I planted about 10 potato pieces, yeilded about 10 lbs of potatoes. I am still fascinated. I've been growing things for a long time but honestly potato plants are quite fascinating, and so easy. I don't many potatoes but I sure do love to grow them. In planters, in the ground, in new beds and old, it's so rewarding. :)
That sounds amazing, and it's so rewarding as you say. I'm hoping to encourage a lot of children to grow potatoes this spring, because I think they will find it fascinating.
Hello Charles! Your videos always contain a lot of useful information. Thank you for sharing your experience. Health and all the best to you! Peace for everyone! Ukraine👍🌻💙💛🙏
Many thanks!
Excellent and exciting grow trial series you are conducting with composts, potting mix, and real soil---great idea to grow leeks in the same substrate as the potatoes, too! Love the cliff-hanger!
The best thing about growing in sacks/bags is that the pesky mole doesn't bugger up the crop
Apparently if the compost is too nutrient dense at the start, you immediately get a high number of tubers. If the medium is unable to maintain this high level of nutrients, these tubers never develop. And so to get bigger potatoes, sow in an average compost and then feed later in the year as the tubers are swelling
You didn't show us the harvest from the horse manure. Last year I planted in pots and just used grass cuttings. I got quite a few potatoes. I didn't want the expense of buying compost to grow them - my dalek compost was still in process. I've got about seven big bags of compost from the dalek this year, and it looks to be good quality.
Ive got tons (and I mean tons) of horse manure as two local stables pile it up on my land and I turn it over with my digger every couple of weeks so it becomes beautiful well rotted compost - i don’t believe it has any weed killer in it - I was thinking of using it to grow my potatoes in pots this year with nothing else added - any thoughts?
Unlikely to be any harvest with the Pyralid weed killer.
I’ve used it as a top dressing over the past two or three years and it all works well so I am pretty sure there isn’t any weed killer in it
The harvest from the horse manure was a load of shite ... 😆 haha..ahhhh... I'll get my coat😔
@@johnduncombe8759 test it with some pea/bean seeds and see what happens. Once you get pyralid on any land it's a nightmare to get rid of it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to create and share this video. It's so useful to see your comparison of different growing medium types and the logical winner perhaps makes me feel my own compost purchase has been justified. There is nothing like knowing where your food comes from. That it is chemical free, fresh and flavoursome. And that it's there the following January when you harvested in the previous July! I wouldn't have achieved what I have in my growing without your inspiration; thank you, Charles.
That is lovely, thank and may 2023 be good!
I did potatoes last year in old feed bags, they are just that single use that I dislike so I rolled them down put in compost (mine) and potatoes. Actually got a nice yield.
We never stop learning! What an amazing video. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I love your gardening experiments, Charles. Interesting results. Eagerly await part with the leeks. 💚
Oh my....I call this experiment "Dedication" .Very interesting.
Thank you for this experiment and for sharing it with us, Charles.
We made some raised beds last Summer and I was going to fill them with horse manure from our village stables (I thought it was natural, free, nutritious and closing the gap locally). I am so happy I did some research before filling them up. I was worried about the antibiotics they probably had given to the horses and them making their way into our bodies.
It's refreshing (and worrying at the same time) to see the results of the others and the horse manure 🤢
How terrible if someone does all the work of growing their own to improve their health, and this happens... 🙏
Keep up the videos, Charles. Thank you.
Phew, and that has happened to quite a few people, and it should not!
Yes, and those persistent herbicides are something I hadn't known about- My parents diary farm, mostly conventionally ( vrs. all Organic or regenerative per se) yet don't usually spray anything on hayfields, so, it wasn't even on my "radar".
Happy new year to you and yours , ive been following you for quite a while even though i am in the caribbean your advice has never been wrong thanks for your never ending good work. May God bless you always.
Awesome! Thank you so much and I wish you continued success
Interesting experiment, and because it's in bag's makes it more room for other veggies on the raise beds . As for compost I been making some but not in large quantities so definitely going to amend it . Thank you for the information. God bless Charles. 🙏🏻
I wouldn't have expected that the wood chips would grow potatoes in those amounts. That's a pleasant surprise.
Earth, I think I will just keep in the garden. I think I will add coir to increase drainage, living in a temperate rainforest zone.
Interesting to see mushroom manure producing such good quality potatoes.
I sure love the design of your logo and all your books and I hope you never change it! Don’t let some crazy design guy like my husband make you think you need to “update” the look! ❤
😀 thanks Tami!
Found it very interesting as I'm planning to grow my potatos in sacks this year.
Thank you, I started growing veggies in my garden 4 years ago after I looked at you from TH-cam.
Nice to hear Elizabeth 💚
The best yields I have had were 3-5 year old manure. The next was just over 1 year old mulch which was put in a raised bed about 1ft deep. That bed is my best bed even now full of perennial veg, leeks etc. I think it will be another season before it needs topping up.
I found this video very helpful. I grow potatoes in felt bags so it’s good to know which medium works the best. 🥔🏆
Hello Charles, great video thankyou. I've been growing potatoes in 15 gal grow bags for several years with really great result. I use my own aged compost and I grow mustard in the bags, late fall thru til spring. Wire worms aren't too fond of mustard, and the cover crop idea seems to help. I grow 4 varieties and most years I get really big potatoes. I quit useing barnyard manure 3 yrs ago and I add a little bit of composted aged chicken manure. Blessings.
Sounds great Linda
I planted in bags last year. Totally underestimated the leaves acting as an umbrella and massively under watered. The potatoes in the ground did much better but I don’t like disturbing the soil when harvesting. Think I may try just two potatoes or even one in a sack and see the difference. I don’t expect any more match yours, except maybe the manure one 🙈
Yes I under-watered!
Just remember/be aware, that when disturbing the soil when harvesting potatoes, that the more advanced your no-till garden is, the more you'll be able to simply pull them out and easily reach in to gather any u suspect r still there, without completely destroyed a giant hole, like can be "normal" otherwise. Then too, with the undisturbed paths between the rows of hills, the relatively small, disturbed area has a lot of UN-disturbed borders to send in re-populations, healing, growth, quickly. When watching a fairly recent webinar series on some soil life basics, with Elaine Ingram, on TH-cam, I learned that.
Thanks very much Charles, wonderful info, as usual.
Best wishes from Ireland.
I did a similar system with Charlottes and Maris peer but I turned the sacks inside out to as the black heats up the soil.I put an inch of gravel in the bottom and mulched the top with straw.
Did you abandon the horse manure bag? I know it certainly appeared to be tainted by pyralid but it would have been interesting (to me at least)
To see it included in the next part with the leeks as pyralid doesn't seem to affect them very much.
Regardless it was a fascinating experiment. Thank you.
Thanks, and yes, I was so disgusted. There were zero potatoes and I have actually found onions were less strong in pyralid affected compost, however, yes, I could've continued!
it's always worth watching your videos and which contain lot of information that take log time to know it but you shorten it in a video
Thanks a lot :)
@@CharlesDowding1nodig you are welcome
I love that you do experiments like this! It's so fascinating!
Thank you Amanda
I had some pretty good success with just planting into un-shredded fall leaves I had leftover.
Wonderful use of a 'waste' resource :)
I've done the same using overwintered straw. Super easy to harvest and not leave any spuds behind.
We had some potatoes sprout in some rotting camellia flowers?? I put a box around them and added compost and keep adding as it grows. Also added seaweed tea
I loved that cut of you reaching into the compost bag with that big cheesy smile...made me laugh
😂 cool thanks Tony
Thanks Charles, looks like mushroom compost rocks.
💚
Thank you for this presentation , I really appreciate showing the results after a well thoughtful test , Cheers
I got a grow sack for Christmas so will be growing potatoes in it from April 👍🏼
🎄!
Thanks for this Charles. I’m currently experimenting with this myself after getting tired of potatoes (and garlic) bring up the clay with weed seeds below my beds. This will likely be a better long term alternative.
Thanks Charles for this wonderful and insightful video regarding potato growth in different 'soils'. Your videos are so inspiring! 😊
Cheers Angie
I planted some in my compost heap, near the edge to avoid overheating. Had quite a good result
I always have volunteer potatoes in my compost heaps!
@@weibullguy 😁 yes that happens. I used to have those in my soil as well, till i started to plant in containers
My potato compost scraps went on a hugel mound I am building up and I had to laugh at the 10 lbs/ 5 ish kilos I got from them. Nice treat I have to say.
Excellent. ThankYou. I am looking forward to the leek video.
Awesome Govner! As always, VERY informative video.
Thanks again Gary
I'm trying a combination of seaweed and hay/Straw from Rabbits. Looking forward to the result
Chicken manure and blood n bone
somebody took notes together with Red Gardens in ireland ;) another potato-trail! Yeahy
Thank you for the test - I'm planting spuds in mushroom compost with a small mix of fishbone - looking forward to seeing what we have in 15 weeks
Sounds great!
Yep I hope the mushroom comp works well with Tomato plants too
What a treasure these videos! Thank you.
Always learning from you, your experiments and your videos.
Thank you!
Great video as always Charles, thank you. I recently cleared a new veg bed in my garden, and am preparing it for the year ahead. To improve the soil I mixed in a few bags of rotted horse manure from B&Q, which has done pretty well for me in the past. However, now I'm worried that I've brought in some horrible chemicals with it. It's currently under cardboard and will sit for a few months until I start planting in spring - do you think that's enough for the micro-organisms to break it down? I'd be grateful for more information on it. If you're looking for ideas for the channel, perhaps you could interview someone about it, to advise on how long the effects can persist, and ways to avoid it? Many thanks!
Well, I have already made two videos on it since suffering poisoning in 2014. I've had a lot of contact with Dow-Corteva chemical company who make it and who were not helpful at all. Their advice is to rotavate the soil to bring it into contact with microorganisms, but they obviously do not realise that rotavated soil kills microorganisms!
I have since discovered that best degradation is through sunlight so surface application is best. Yours might be okay and you could put a little in module cells or small pots and sow broad beans on the windowsill, to find out within four weeks if growth is healthy. Beans are very susceptible.
Wow Mr. Motivator. Charles Dowding gave you great solutions using his own experience. Hope you were notified.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Fantastic, thank you Charles. I'll look up those two videos. It's a new bed from which I had to remove a lot of Montbretia, woody shrubs and carpeting perennials, so I had to disturb the topsoil to get all that out. While it was already disturbed I dug in the manure, and laid cardboard over the top. It'll be about three months before I'll plant anything there, so hopefully that will give it a chance for the microorganisms to reestablish and break down any chemical residues that may be in it. In future years I'll not dig it again, and will mulch with my own home-made compost.
If using manure again in the future I'll make sure to look out for certified-organic manure. It'll be more expensive, but at least I'll know that I'll not be exposing my family to any horrible chemicals.
That was interesting. Thank you.
Now, I wonder if the potatoes had a flavor difference?
None that we noticed
Interesting question, I was wondering the same. I saw a video by Liz Zorab, where she grew the same vaiety of potatoes - no-dig method, just covered with different mulches and while taste testing, the differences were noticable. The leafmould gave the best tasting potatoes, if I remember correctly.
Tnx for yet another very instructive video, Charles! You got me thinking: maybe the reason birds keep digging up my plants in the raised beds is that the compost I add every year isn't ready yet!? Still too many worms in it....
Will certainly make a difference, and thanks
Lovely as always! Like works or art
💚 nice you see it like that
Another great and intriguing video Sir Charles Dowding.
For an urban garden grower this seems to not be cost effective crop for the amount good compost and space required. A bag of 2.5kg you can get pretty good price but obviously it would not taste as good fresh ones. The cost of compost is expensive these days. Conclusion, worth growing in the ground if you have space but in pots it’s not economical for urban gardener
Yes, absolutely and also the compost can, after harvesting potatoes, be used to improve the soil :)
What happened to the horse manure potatoes? 🙂 I enjoyed this journey. Thanks for sharing God bless
Thanks, and there were none! Sorry, I thought it would be obvious. Zero
Thank you Sir, for the experiment. It took a lot of time and dedication and you made it look easier in only 18 minutes.
Indeed you harvest them too early. Those potatoes will be much much more heavier in a week or two.
Really really fascinating
You are most welcome and also correct on that, but we have to fit in with the videographer! Also, for the second part of transplanting leeks, the sooner they go in the better.
Very good trial showing, with aspects of each. I'm thinking that the issue in the horse manue compost isn't limited to horse. Used a bag of primarily cow manure for seed starting at the first of last year. So many seeds either didn't spout or performed poorly. I'm abstaining from bagged compost this coming year (thankful for the spouse's chicken collection!). Consider that this information comes from South Central area of the US. As always, thank you so much for your time.
Thanks for sharing. Such a pity about manure which should be amazing!
Buenos dias Carlos great video
Hi Charles, just preparing a few bags for my spring onions, 25 Liter bags. Did you put any drainage materials in the bottom of the sacks and did you make any drainage holes at all??? Many thanks in advance
I didn't put anything except compost in the sacks, and all of those sacks had some holes, plus, I cut more slits before filling them. You are right to ask the question because drainage is vital.
Fantastically well structured video and even a fancy stick the hand in the compost sack transition haha!
Could it be that the horse manure was still breaking down? Like you said it was still warm?
Also if you would normally expect potatoes to grow well in %100 horse manure like that, then that should be an indication of just how much chook poo you could add to the wood chip bags (lots!).
Red Gardens TH-cam channel just posted a very similar trial with 180 sacks you may be interested in watching. From memory, chook poo added as fertiliser didn't perform well for them.
Did you give up on the weed killer bag? Would have been interesting to repeat it for a few years to see if it broke down.
Thanks for the great video!
Cheers Dean, food for thought here :)
I remember coming across an article in the U.S. about race horses getting crippling effects from they guessed, the grass. If there was a follow up article I missed it.
Wow that would be big news!
I love this!! I think I am going to forgoe the Ratte that I grew last year for Charlotte. I was disappointed with my potato harvest, I did water daily through the hot weather, from what I've seen I dont think it was just me that had poor results. I had high hopes for Kondor and the Sarpo Blue Danube, unfortunately didn't materialise! I will try again from saved seed. I thought I saw 8 sacks to begin with and only 7 buckets at the end? Thank you as always 🙂
I think the 8th sack was the completely failed trial in the horse manure. There were no potatoes to harvest, I guess.
Interesting what you say about manure. We had some delivered to the allotment, well rotted, but my rhubarb went yellow, wilted and seemed to rot at the base. I wonder now if this is chemicals. Slightly worrying as I have spread it all over my empty beds to improve my clay soil this winter.😮
Ah bother, I'm afraid that may be the case, and you could verify it, at least you would know. Take some of the manure and put it in two or three pots, then sow broad beans and keep them on the windowsill, you will know within four weeks, whether plants are healthy or deformed. Classic sign is new leaves curling inwards.
If that happens, you can still grow sweetcorn and brassicas, but not beans or potatoes or tomatoes. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope it's not the case.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you so much. Btw. Love the calendar 👍so helpful
Really enjoyed your video.
Much appreciated
Kindest regards x
Amazing video. Very interesting. I just got your year calendar and I'm looking forward to the new book for children. I'm getting it for my 4 year old.
As you were about to plant leeks... I lost all of mine to allium leaf miner. Also, tons of other plants from the allium family were affected, even under micromesh. My garlic this year was pitiful. Never had my garlic infested until last year. Do you have advice? Thank you 😊
Thanks Susan. I had damage this year for the second time only, on leeks and it needs to not get any worse! I'm afraid I don't have advice at the moment. It sounds bad for you!
I'd love to see how all these combined perform.
‼️ nice thought
Cool experiment Charles. I don't hear you talk much about ph levels in the soil when growing potatoes. Most information I read from other sources suggests adding acidic amendments like sulfur to your soil before planting because potatoes allegedly enjoy lower ph levels. Have you found this to be the case in your experience?
Haha no! I see so much unnecessary overcomplication, and here the soil is actually a little alkaline, so in theory I could do that, but I never found a need for it. Because potatoes since 1982 have always been good.
Potatoes is a steady crop and we are grateful for that. What more is to say is that with potatoes it is like most of the other crops, they like the best weather for its species. They do not like it to hot, we get more tasty bulbs up here in the north of Sweden compared to the south. In my opinion they give the best harvest with a solid temperature somewhere in the middle of the scale and not to much rain.
We plant them traditionally in a field with sandy soil, plowed by the village farmer, fertilized with cow manure. Usually, with the combination of a sunny but not to hot summer and a regularly amount of rain we get a very good harvest. In garden i use to have 3-4 pallet bins for potatoes, growing them "vertically"- I put the seedlings on the ground and put soil on them, then keep putting more soil on the growth and end up with 2-3 pallets on each others in the end. I have found it an easy (and cheap) way to get a lot of bulbs on a small area and a perfect way to expand the amount of a new variety. I have the same soil everywhere in my garden; cow manure at the bottom of my beds and a mix of soil from the fields, recycled soil from the seedling pots, sand and a lot of leafs. Blending the recycled soil, sand and leafs in a bag in autumn and spread it out on the beds, working fine. In spring I fertilize with a little manure from the chickens on the surface of the beds and later on I water with a "soup" made of nettles, comfrey and dry and hard pieces from the cow manure, once a month.
Amazing, nice to hear about temperature not too hot
Great video and I was very surprised with the wood chips yield but I'm guessing if it's actually become compost then of course it has the nutrients and microbial life as do the others.
Pity about the horse poo - I'm fortunate to have a daughter with three horses - have to be quick though as the dung beetles do an amazingly quick job of carting it away!
Oddly, the best yield I've had in almost 50 years, was in clay too hard to dig - I just laid the spuds on the ground and did a horse manure, hay and straw lasagne on top. But the staggering thing was how this changed the soil - top inch or so was dark, friable and with soil life. Haven't dug the soil since, and since finding you quite some time ago, only use compost (my own or mushroom). It's extremely hot here in the Riverina NSW so I do add sugar cane mulch. Absolutely love your informative videos and you keep inspiring me to try things - even though my vegie patch is small it takes up my entire back yard - love, love gardening and seeing things grow. 👩🌾
This is so nice to see Liz! How well you have done, following your instincts.
I hope that your daughter can trace any hay given to the horses to be sure that it has none of that pyralid weedkiller in.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
thankyou so much for taking the time to reply - she only feeds lucerne, so I'm pretty confident. I did however get a contaminated bag of general compost 2 years ago when I couldnt get mushroom - wrecked 5 of my cherry tomatoes! I wouldn't have known about this had it not been for you, and the same goes for why my hard clay soil changed - fungi and microbes are truly amazing. Learning about soil life and compost through your videos answered so many questions, and it all makes such sense - I now try to replicate what I see Nature do when out on my bushwalks. Many thx again.
Yes. This matters. Thanks Charles. I've made an error or gamble planting potatoes in January. I put the contents of planting pots over them.
Grow something, everyone.
Horses aren't chemists....
Wow early, good luck
Really enjoyed this!
💚
Waow Im going to do this comperense here on Styrsö ireland in Sweden. So exiting. 👍🙏
That was really interesting. Imagine the yield if you mixed it all together, EXCEPT the weed killer of course 😁 I actually buy my mushroom compost a year before I use it just in case there are aminopyralids in there. I slowly mix it with many of the mediums mentioned in the video so that things have a season or two to merry and then I amend with it. I have seen whole properties so affected by aminopyralids that I don't trust anything that I bring in.
I am just using the last of my garden potatoes now. I will be growing more in the spring. I do wish suppliers would have some short season seed potatoes for mid season planting though so we can harvest in the fall. I manage to do it with some potato varieties so at least I get some. I mean, I get it, since we are a shorter season but I can still get a round of lovely little fresh potatoes in October where I am. Of course, I am a brave(or crazy) gardener, haha!
Nice to see!
Do you mean, available to buy in the stores, mid-season ? Or shorter season varieties to buy and plant in spring, to harvest sooner ? Because for the latter, the fairly common " Yokon Gold" has a short-season to maturity. I know there are others. U may want to peruse more catalogs, for this info. Esp. the catalogs geared towards market growers such as 'Johnny's' , will have more various-season length varieties of things &/or more information about stuff like that on what they sell. As for getting seed potatoes in the off-season, just buying organic potatoes will usually do it.
@@ajb.822 It was more getting seed potatoes beyond the one time they offer them at the garden centers. Great tip about the organic ones though. Thanks!
Hi Charles i have a question; can a cured manure (10-12 months) contaminate well water? i ask because i have my market garden 25mts away from a municipal well that provides 70% of the water to the town and the health service of the city hall are going to come to take a test of my compost to see if it is positive on coli or other bacteria because they fear it can contaminate the well.. thanks
I would be amazed, if your old manure, which is essentially is compost, could cause contamination to the well. Especially from being spread on the surface, because then it is fully aerobic and healthy without harmful bacteria.
Is "Potting Compost" in the U.K. the same as what is sold in the U.S. as "Potting Mix"? U.S. "Potting Mix" is primarily used for container gardening. It is very lightweight, is mostly peat moss and usually also contains perlite. Unless it has added fertilizer, which most do, it is not usually very nutrient dense.
You are absolutely right, it is the same as your potting mix. The one I use is organic and has no added fertiliser, and usually has a good amount of nutrients.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank You!
Charles, I'm growing spuds for others and I don't even eat them! How do I know when first earlies are ready without disturbing them to check? Also, where do you stand on flowers? I nipped the buds out a couple of weeks ago now.
I leave the flowers, see very small advantage in removing them, and ready is a value word so it depends what you want. If you harvest earlier, the potatoes are smaller and sweeter. Harvest before the leaves are going yellow.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I'm thinking a max of around 2" across sounds sensible for an early. I was wondering if the flower was an indication that they were ready or at a certain size, but maybe not. Will experiment. I'll leave then on next time, at least then the bees can use them, i'm guessing they're so small not a lot of energy is lost to them. Thanks for taking the time!
Does the same issue with horse manure translate with goat? I was going to clean out the pen for filling the lower portion of my raised bed!
Hard to say, it's from whether the animal ate any hay where the grass had been sprayed with this horrible, persistent weed killer, with active ingredient known as pyralid. You will be okay if you know how the hay was grown.
Thank you for the video it help me a lot 👌👌
Good Afternoon Charles, I wonder if I might be cheeky and ask what you use or recommend for slug control. I follow your no dig process and have good results, however this year I have lost quite a lot of main crop potatoes to slug damage. Is there a variety that you can recommend that is more resistant?
None Peter. It's fine to ask, and I find that with No Dig, there must be good populations of slug and slug egg predators, such as beetles and toads. Plus with potatoes, I never grow maincrop because I want the harvest before end of July, so I can put in second plantings. That means less slug damage because we remove potatoes as soon as they are finished growing or even before, and that's before slugs as well mostly!
I hate pellets and do not use them, even the so-called organic ones.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. It does make complete sense to stick with early. The ammount of main crop I've had to waste is quite high. Thanks again for the help.
Thanks Charles for this video. I've been growing potatoes a lot of times and it's very informative for me cause i want them bigger and i'm gonna try those out. It would be awesome if you made a video mixing all of these composts,soil and share the results with us. By the way,are the chicken manure you used composted or you let it sit for a while? I've learned that there's pathogens present in manure and it should be composted. Let me know what's your thoughts on this.
Glad to help! Let's see what I have time to do.
Regarding so-called pathogens in manure, there is some misunderstanding because while they might be pathogenic if you eat the manure, they are not a concern when growing plants. I think it's the sellers of synthetic fertiliser, who propagate these rumours to worry us!
an interesting trial would be comparing a no dig bed with compost to a no dig bed with same compost but with balanced npk fertilizer added, say half strength, maybe another full strength
Cheers Barry, only I could not bring myself to do this because of how synthetic fertiliser damages, the soil's microorganisms. See this study by a farming centre in the UK, "Inorganic fertiliser application reduces both the species richness and diversity of bacteria in the immediate vicinity of wheat roots. We’ve shown the amount of growth promoting bacteria living around the roots was 91% for unfertilized plants whereas for fertilized plants only 19% were found to show beneficial traits."
www.rothamsted.ac.uk/article/kicking-habit-fertilisers#:~:text=Inorganic%20fertiliser%20application%20reduces%20both,found%20to%20show%20beneficial%20traits.
Turn the bags inside out so that the black is on the outside. This will help conserve heat in the bag.
I notice now that you used the green waste compost only after keeping it for a year. I've just had a tipper-load of fresh green waste compost (black, dusty, fluffy and hot) and wanted to use it to make new no-dig beds (a layer on quite clean, previously cultivated soil) and also to use it on its own in buckets to grow potatoes, like in your experiment. I'm wondering, now, if you would advise against using green waste compost immediately after delivery as it needs a year to develop some 'live' microbes, extract the nutrients a bit from the sterilised material? I tried germinating broccoli seeds in some, as in growing cress in a small dish, and the seedlings looked very spindly and weak and the germination rate was only about 50%. Your potato results (and the following leeks) were good in green waste, but perhaps only because you allowed it another year to compost naturally. What would you advise?
Excellent observations, Chris, and you have provided the answer! Best leave it a year if it's delivered in the state you describe, which was the case for mine one year before that. Ideally you need to get water into it which is not easy because of how it sheds moisture. Definitely, I would not make a new bed with it this year, but you could use it as a thin dressing, where it will get wet and charge with microbes.
Interesting. I'm doing my own experiment this year with homemade, multi purpose and horse manure. Thankfully the manure is from a field free of weed killer. All in 8 gallon containers.
Sounds a good trial!
Great experiment Charles. I'll be growing sweet potatoes in bags this year so I'm thinking mushroom compost maybe now.
Speaking of potatoes, my seed potatoes I had stored in the garage in a box have begun sprouting already. I put them in our sun room where temps are in the upper 60's to around 70 F and they get plenty of sun. I won't be planting them until at least April. Can I chit them that long? I don't know what else to do with them.
That will be fine. We're going to do the same next week, and it's quite normal for them to be sprouting already.
On the topic of sweet potatoes, Jim Kovaleski has found they do best in very poor soil, fertility-wise. For production of tubers, in his experience so far. ( find his videos on Pete Kanaris's channel " Green Dreams FL).
@@ajb.822 I believe mushroom compost is not very fertile since they already had mushrooms grown in them so maybe that is why they did best in Charles's experiment. Thanks for the info.
Very interesting!
Would you say this is a worthwhile potato growing method: easier, productive vs planting in ground? Harvesting seems SIMPLE!
One advantage of growing in sacks or buckets is that you can move the plants around according to the season and the weather, to keep them out of the frost and to provide as much sunlight as the time of year allows.
Yes and no.
Is a lot of extra watering compared to growing in the ground, and needs more space than you imagine, because of how the leaves spread out from the sacks
Interesting comparisons Charles thanks for taking the time throughout the year to produce that video. Interestingly I have just combined some 6 month old horse manure with my ordinary compost in layers to let it rot down for next year. However there were lots of worms in the ordinary compost and none in the partly rotted horse manure, I am wondering if this is an indication of the same problem you had with your horse manure. I hope not because it is my main source for compost production.
Glad it was helpful Graham and worms do not populate the compost any differently in my experience, whether there is poison or not. I find it amazing also that horses eat the hay and apparently do not get ill. I suspect there must be long-term damage, but hope not!
You can always take some horse manure and sow broad beans in it, you will know within 3 to 4 weeks. If they are healthy and normal, all is good.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks Charles I had seen your previous videos where you have used the broad beans to test the compost. I will do that.
Nice one Charles, but having just watched 'simplify gardening' our welsh friend says chicken pellets are for top growth and blood and bone is for tubers. What say you sir?
That's the old-fashioned way of explaining nitrogen and phosphorus, isolating compounds and assigning them to different aspects of growth and I don't find it works like that, because in this case you need potato leaves in order for there to be potatoes. That wood compost is short of nitrogen because of the high amount of carbon. Those pellets helped grow potatoes. In my garden beds, I never use them.
What a fascinating trialxx
Great trial Sir Charles and happy New Year! Would it make a positive difference to turn the bags inside out to have the black side warm up faster or would it get worse? (Of course leaving the bought Moorland gold sack as is😉). I tried to grow potatoes this year in admittedly very poor bought soil for a bargain, which was of course contra productive and not a bargain at all... hardly any yield from 6 big buckets. Will do another fill this year and try again.
That's a very good idea! Wish I had thought of it… Just one would need to be careful, if strong sun was on the edge of the sack, to water more.
Good luck this year!
Really interesting results Charles, and very frustrating about the weed killer in the horse manure. We recently had some of our allotment holders suffer similar results from a delivery of horse manure. I can’t say just how annoying it is. On the plus side we have had much better results from our composted cow manure, so much so I’ve taken a delivery of another 5 tonnes just the other day.
Mad world eh!
It could be interesting to carry out the following test. Take several bags with the same medium ( probably your own compost). In a few bags plant one potato, in a few more plant two, and in a few more plant three potatoes. Also would pH be relevant. It's always been said that potatoes don't grow well in ground that was limed, in the previous year.
If one had time. I never use lime, another trial indeed
@@CharlesDowding1nodig for sure. I had always heard that mushroom growers / mushroom compost manufacturers added lime to the substrate. I've googled it & one site stated that the 'lime' that they used may have been a pH buffer, rather than pH 'raiser'. The composted wood chip is interesting!
Interesting! 💚
I have put manure on my allotment in the past and I don't think i'll be doing that any more. As well as the weed killer a lot of people say that the manure can come with a lot of weeds in it as well. The thing I wonder about is whether growing potatoes in this way is very economical, it's hard to imagine that it would be.
Interesting point and it depends how you define economical. The flavour of these is excellent compared to most which you can buy.
Great trial ,,, Was there peat in the potting compost ?
Yes, this one does have some, and it's recycled from reservoirs in Yorkshire where they sieve the peat out of water, it's not been dug out of the ground.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I think my potatoes in pots grow better with a bit of peat mixed with my own compost ,, always seem to get more potatoes with that mix
@@edgewalker7459 better drainage probably :)
This is spooky, did you coordinate with RED Gardens channel?
He did almost the exact same trial, finished just recently as well. Very curious to see how the results stack up.
Amazing, and no!!
Ahhh, potatoes. I wish I could grow them here, they are so expensive in the supermarket. I make do with cassava and sweet potatoes but they're not the same :)
That's so funny, when here is the other way round, and people are desperate to grow sweet potatoes!
great info
Our late potatoes got destroyed by wireworm, I seen you mention on instagram the other day about your rye recovering from wireworm. Do you have any recommendations on dealing with them? I read that they dont like mustard so I sowed some where the potatoes will be going this year . Not getting my hopes up though 😂
Very difficult and that mustard is an excellent idea, I hope it works
That is why some grow in containers.
Thank you Sir :)
and Nothing from the horse manure which looked a year shy of being usable when you put it in the bag ..lol
In the past, I have grown successful vegetables from horse manure of that age and consistency. And the growth showed weed killer damage with those twisted leaves.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Weed killer is a sign you have 2 problems. One you are actually using weed killer and 2 that you have that many weeds.